China is famous for many things, but a deeply-held respect for the concept of intellectual property isn't one of them. It's a problem that Land Rover has just run into head-first after its claims that the Land Wind X7 was a shameless copy of its Range Rover Evoque fell upon deaf ears. Autocar is reporting that, not only did authorities dismiss the complaint, but the Chinese company has been given permission to start manufacturing the vehicle.

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Wed, 29 Apr 2015 19:39:00 -040021|21177898http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/28/game-cloning-sucks/%3Futm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_source%3DFeed_Classic%26utm_campaign%3DEngadget%26ncid%3Drss_semi
http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/28/game-cloning-sucks/http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/28/game-cloning-sucks/%3Futm_source%3DFeed_Classic%26utm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_campaign%3DEngadget%23comments
Did you play Monument Valley(above left), the gorgeous perspective-based puzzler from last year? It costs $4 on Google Play / iTunes, and is one of 2014's best games. And now you can get it for free. Sort of. You see, Ketchapp, the studio behind Threes! knockoff 2048 is at it again. With Skyward (above right), the developer's created a game that bears more than a passing resemblance to ustwo Studio's Apple Design Award winner. Whereas Monument Valley is a relaxing, almost Zen-like experience that's more about logic puzzles than twitch reactions, Skyward is a shallow attempt at disguising a tired Flappy Birdclone by wrapping it in pastel colors and M.C. Escher-like aesthetics. Oh, and it's full of obtrusive ads for retirement planning and compact cars -- junk that's thankfully missing from Monument Valley.

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Wed, 28 Jan 2015 11:19:00 -050021|21135973http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/08/the-big-picture-this-is-not-the-apple-watch/%3Futm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_source%3DFeed_Classic%26utm_campaign%3DEngadget%26ncid%3Drss_semi
http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/08/the-big-picture-this-is-not-the-apple-watch/http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/08/the-big-picture-this-is-not-the-apple-watch/%3Futm_source%3DFeed_Classic%26utm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_campaign%3DEngadget%23commentsThis is not the Apple Watch and it isn't launching in early 2015. Slideshow-258103

We've ripped apart knock-off gadgets more than a few times, but there are moments where a company's urge to mimic others will pay dividends. Take 8Bitdo's recently released NES30, for example: the Bluetooth gamepad recreates as much of the NES controller's design as possible while still keeping its feet planted in the modern era. The four extra buttons aren't exactly true to the 1985 original, but the overall look and button presses are reportedly faithful to what you remember. Even if it's not quite true to life, you might not mind given the very broad device support. The NES30 can talk to Android, iOS, OS X and Windows, and it can even double as a (fairly awkward-looking) Wii remote in a pinch.

At first glance this beauty might look like the Galaxy Gear, but it's actually the PW305. Apparently the guys at Podoor didn't get the memo from CNN that people weren't counterfeiting smartwatches, and made this stylish number. The company tells us that the watch is based on Linux and "performs stably and practically," two features we're definitely looking for in a wearable. Check out a demo video of the PW305 in all its KIRF glory after the break.

If you're going to clone one of 2014's hottest Android flagships, you might as well clone others, right? Goophone certainly thinks so. It just launched the Goophone M8, a smartphone that bears an uncanny resemblance to the all new (and still-unannounced) HTC One. Not that the similarities are much more than skin deep, mind you. Goophone's attempt at keepin' it real fake uses capacitive keys instead of the new One's on-screen buttons, and we doubt that the middling (if octa-core) processor, 1GB of RAM and 3G data speeds will have HTC breaking a sweat. It only costs $230 to get Goophone's knock-off, though. And hey, it comes in gold -- if you're only looking for an ostentatious design, you might as well save some cash.

Goophone's a bit like a covers band that just happens to make knock-off smartphones. Not content with just plundering better artists' catalogs, the company has apparently managed to copy the Galaxy S5 in under two days. The Goophone S5, yep, has a 5-inch, 1,920 x 1,080 display, paired with a 2GHz octa-core MediaTek chip and 2GB RAM. Keep looking, and you'll find 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, dual-SIM slots, 32GB storage and a 2,800mAh battery, in addition to 13-and-5-megapixel rear and front cameras. It's available in white, black, gold or blue and is priced at $300, making it the ideal companion for your Lucci bag, Tammy Hilfinger shirt and Seanheiser headphones.

Remember when Nikon noticed that Polaroid's iM1836looked a little too much like the J1 and lawyered-up? The case has arrived at the Southern District Court of New York, where a judge probably took 30 seconds to nod their head and say "Yeah, that's the same device." As such, Nikon has won a preliminary injunction preventing the sale and manufacture of the suspiciously-similar shooter. If you were in the hunt for a J1 knock-off, it looks as if you'll have to take your business elsewhere -- at least for now.

You'd think that the Lumia 1020's 41-megapixel camera and unibody design would deter clone makers -- how do you even get close to the real thing? That hasn't stopped an anonymous Shenzhen company from giving it a shot, however. As you'd expect, this attempt at keepin' it real fake is nowhere near as well-designed as the Nokia original. It's housed in a crude two-piece shell and carries just a 2MP camera at the back. Most of the rear hump is occupied by "41-megaplxel" speakers and an attempted revival of Nokia's XpressMusic badge. At least the Windows Phone-like Android launcher is more convincing. We'd advise against spending $69 on this knockoff for serious uses, although you may want one for the novelty; now that Microsoft is buying Nokia's device business, it may the closest we get to an Android-based Nokia phone. Check out a second image of the clone after the break.

Goophone's shaping up to be an enduring passenger aboard the iPhone clone train. Hence, it comes as absolutely no surprise that it's conjuring up an iPhone 5C copy months after it released an iPhone 5S of its own. Despite popular belief that the 5C will be more affordable than the typical iPhone, the KIRFer has confirmed to us that it's making a copy known as the i5C. Goophone has yet to spill the details (and the above image is just a mockup), but leaked specs suggest it'll contain a 4-inch 960 x 540 screen, a 1.2GHz dual-core MTK6572 processor and an 8-megapixel rear / 2-megapixel front-facing camera. It reportedly supports quad-band GSM, has 3G connectivity and runs Android 4.2. It's claimed that the Goophone i5C will ring in at $100, but anyone who'd like to get their hands on the cloner's latest masterpiece will have to wait -- Goophone tells us it's waiting for the real one to make first arrival.

Gone are the days of bizarre phones with some special practical use, but not all hope is lost. Earlier today, this author stumbled upon a shanzhai Android 4.0.1 phone with a built-in power plug! It's a bit awkward, though, as you have to take off the back cover to flip up the Type A plug -- we're assuming it has a world-friendly voltage rating, but we'll double check. Should you wish to juice the phone up the old-fashioned way, the micro-USB port is still there.

Externally, this Daxian N100i seems to be very much "inspired" by the Xiaomi Phone 2 or 2S. Given the HK$599 (about US$80) price point (or about US$40 each in bulk), don't expect too many goodies from this outlandish candy bar: there's a dual-core 1GHz MT6517 chipset, a 4.3-inch 800 x 480 TN display, 4GB of storage, a microSD slot, an 1,800mAh cell (plus a spare in the box) and dual-SIM slots -- but for GSM 900/1800 only. The front and back cameras both have a resolution of just 3.1 megapixels, and it was hard to judge the picture quality on that horrible screen. Still intrigued? Then check out the flip plug in action in our video after the break. Slideshow-73411

We hate to say this, but the KIRF market is often a good indicator of how popular certain devices are, hence the plentiful fake iPhones and Galaxy phones in China. (Meanwhile, MediaTek is shamelessly cashing in as it ships its SoCs to those cloning factories.) Now, we're not saying the HTC One doesn't have any clones, but most of those we've seen weren't very convincing -- they were either of different sizes or had very poor build quality. But we eventually stumbled upon a pretty good fake in Huaqiangbei.

The offending device is pictured above on the left. Externally, it bears a disgustingly strong resemblance to the real deal thanks to the same 4.7-inch screen size, the same curved back, the same micro-SIM tray, the same dual-soft-key layout and even the same metallic chamfer on the front. But if you look closer or touch it even, the tell-tale signs start to show up. See for yourself in the gallery below -- the fake One is to the left or on top of the real thing.

Viewing it from afar, you could easily mistake this gadget for Jawbone's Up fitness band. What we have here is actually the SmartBand from Chinese fitness accessories maker Codoon, and it's almost a carbon copy of the Up in terms appearance and functionality. Bend this strip around your wrist to track your movement and sleeping patterns (with the ability to wake you up with vibration at the optimal sleeping cycle; just like the Up), and afterwards, plug the hidden 3.5mm headphone jack into either an iPhone or an Android device for analysis and sharing through Codoon's website.

After we reached out to Baidu regarding the Baidu Cloud logo on the SmartBand, a spokesperson told us that it's the first wearable developed on top of Baidu's PCS (Personal Cloud Service) to sync and share data, and Codoon's upcoming Bluetooth fitness products will work on the same platform (likewise for the Baidu Eye project). Still, it's a real shame that the startup couldn't come up with its very own design for its first hero product. Expect this rip-off to hit the market in early June for an unknown price -- but you can already get an Up in China, anyway.

We've seen plenty of Beats-focused KIRFs in our time, some better than others. Few, however, play quite so directly on the name as OrigAudio's Beets. For $25, adopters get a set of headphones that bear little direct resemblance to Dr. Dre's audio gear of choice, but are no doubt bound to impress friends -- at least, up until they see a root vegetable logo instead of a lower-case B. Thankfully, there's more to it than just amusing and confusing peers. Every purchase will lead to a donation of canned beets (what else?) to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County. For us, that's reason enough to hope that Beats doesn't put the kibosh on OrigAudio's effort. Besides, we could use some accompaniment for our BeetBox.

If you're going to engage in KIRF-ology, you could certainly do worse than HTC's lovely 5-inch slab of unibody plastic, the Butterfly. But if you want to sell it for $222.00, certain niceties have to go out the window -- like the signature 1080p screen, for instance. Star's slipped a 720p unit in there instead, while also downgrading the RAM to 1GB and swapping out Qualcomm's 1.5GHz quad-core CPU for a cheaper MediaTek model. The Chinese cloner's at least kept the other specs real, matching the kosher model's 8-megapixel rear and 3-megapixel front cameras, dual-sim option, SD card expansion slot and Android 4.2 software. Of course, nothing keeps costs down like not having to pay a designer -- and knowing that most of that pesky marketing's already been done for you.

Ah, Goophone. The company that made its name keepin' it real fake with eerily similar clones of other companies' devices, sometimes before the originals have even launched. It's clearly not dropping that tradition anytime soon, as it just previewed the i5S, an attempt to preempt the supposed iPhone 5S before even the rumor mill has produced anything tangible. As you'd almost expect, it's really a not-very-subtle imitation of the current iPhone 5 body and software that does its best to mask the use of Android (this time Jelly Bean) rather than iOS. Don't think that Goophone has learned any more about shadowing Apple on the technology front, however. The i5S is running hardware that would sometimes be trounced by a 2011-era iPhone 4S, including a dual-core 1GHz MediaTek processor, 512MB of RAM, an 854 x 480 screen and a 5-megapixel rear camera. The firm is mostly banking on absurdly low pricing to make up for the sleight-of-hand -- at its $150 launch price, the i5S costs a fraction of the real iPhone 5's price while undercutting the older yet somehow more sophisticated Goophone i5. Catch a video demo of the uncanny facsimile after the break.

It was only a matter of time before we'd see this one, right? As has been the case with many, many other gadgets, Samsung's Galaxy Note II is the latest one to join the "Keepin' it Real Fake" revolution. Formally dubbed Star S7180, this phablet clone, as you can imagine, doesn't come even close to matching the genuine Note II's mighty spec sheet, with this 5.5-inch KIRF device said to be only boasting a dual-core MT6577 CPU with 1GB RAM, 4GB of internal storage and an 8-megapixel cam on the back -- but, hey, at least there's some Jelly Bean to go with that. According to GizChina, you'll have to shell out about $150 for the Star S7180, which, all in all, isn't too bad a deal -- that's if you don't mind taking the faux route, of course. At any rate, you'll find additional eye candy after the break, and, judging by the looks, it may just be Mr. Blurrycam's best work yet.

Either this latest KIRF contender apes Windows Phone to a seriously piratical degree, or someone has simply chopped in a screengrab from an HTC device. Either way, the aptly-named Lemon T109 could at least have tried mimicking the latest version of Redmond's mobile OS instead of Mango. The handset, which has just popped up in India for the equivalent of $54, accepts a pair of SIMs and boasts a 3.7-inch HVGA capacitive touch display. There's a "long" 1,200mAh battery that helps fuel features like the King Movie Player, an automatic call recorder and a 1.3-megapixel snapper circa 2004. We're not sure what the "PC Tablet" accessory refers to, but the free wristwatch on offer could possibly help sweeten the citrusy deal -- especially since the other core specs are MIA. The phone may not look like it's going to smoke anything, but if you're in the area and desperate for vitamins after all that fried bacon, a tap on the source link might just help you meet your match.

There's a growing trend of Apple KIRFs arriving well head of the devices they've been designed to imitate. While Sir Jonathan'slatest desktops meander towards stores, the Windows 7 or 8-running Lavi S21i can be yours right now. The 21.5-inch machine has a 1,920 x 1,080 display, 4GB RAM and a choice of a 3.3GHz Sandy Bridge Intel Core i3 or a 2.9GHz Core i5, and your pick of a 500GB HDD or a 128GB SSD. The only real differences between this and its Californian counterpart is that the ports are tucked on the base of the display and its 4mm thicker, but it will only set you back 3,350 yuan ($540) or 3,850 yuan ($621). The only thing this KIRF is missing is the ability to fry your eggs for you in the morning, unless, you know, the manufacturers were scrimping on the safety features that day.

Meet the 808 Android: the modern day equivalent of those fake mobile antennas that people would attach to their cars in order to make others think they were a big shot. Yes, this device is an Android 2.3-powered forgery of Nokia's 808 PureView, but instead of 41 megapixels of imaging awesomeness, you'll find a mere 3.2MP setup that occupies the presumably hollow protrusion on the rear. Keeping with the theme of slumming things up, the 808 Android offers a 550MHz CPU, a 3.5-inch HVGA resistive touch display, a stylus for easier input and data connectivity that tops out at EDGE. If you were wondering, yes, it's a dual-SIM phone. All of this -- complete with rip-off Carl Zeiss badging -- can be yours for just $73.50. Be sure to peep the gallery below, where you can almost smell the shame.

Here's something you still don't see every day: a KIRF that's unveiled before the device it's supposed to copy. Although the 2012 iPhone may not show for weeks, the Android-based Goophone I5 is already doing a remarkable job of aping Apple's rumored style, including that two-tone look that we've all seen before. Just don't get notions that it's the bargain of the century. Where most rumors point to a bigger screen for the real thing, the I5 is making do with a 3.5-inch screen similar to that for Goophone's iPhone 4S imitator, the Y5. Performance isn't likely to jolt the engineers in Cupertino out of their seats, either. Mum's the word on whether or not the I5 will beat its inspiration to the store shelf, but we'd wager that it will cost a lot less.

A Kickstarter entry has managed to stir the fairness pot by touting a MakerBot Replicator clone called TangiBot -- legally copied from the original 3D printer's open source plans. The project's creator, Matt Strong, says that the device will offer "the same performance and features at a roughly 33 percent discount" to Makerbot's $1,800 price tag, thanks to Chinese manufacturing. That's inflamed some in the 3D printing fraternity, who take exception to the exact copying of a design without any improvement. The founder is unrepentant, however, saying that "MakerBot's technology is nothing new" and insists his replica product's lower price will open up 3D printing to more hobbyists. TangiBot has addressed a trademark gripe from its doppleganger by removing the MakerBot references from Kickstarter -- but hey, we know a KIRF when we see one.

You know Sennheiser's pissed when it holds a press conference just to talk about its anti-counterfeit efforts. In Guangzhou yesterday, the German audio company brought along two executives to debut its new authentication technologies on its retail packaging: a shiny Tesa PrioSpot authenticity label plus a "fool-proof" online look-up system. For the former, President of Corporate Services Volker Batels claims it's treated as securely as one would with cash money, in the sense that it has many visible and invisible features.

There's also a QR code plus its corresponding label ID printed below the foil, and scanning the former or entering the latter on qr-sennheiser.com returns a virtual copy of the foil label plus a visual description. If what you have matches the label on the screen then hakuna matata. But if the code's been looked up many times already, the website will also give you a warning like in the screenshot after the break -- chances are the label's been duplicated, so potential buyers should always check this before handing the money over.

Marc Vincent, the company's President of Greater China, aims to have this "urgent project" covering most products by the end of this year. "We have been fighting counterfeits for five years with some result, but now we have officially declared war on counterfeiting," Mr. Vincent said in a stern voice. "Manufacturers of counterfeit products are social parasites. They really damage our reputation."

We're used to seeing tablet market share illustrated on the world stage. China, however, has usually been untouched. Analysys International has taken a crack at decoding the market and has bucked a few expectations in the process: according to its estimates, the iPad's lead is even larger in China than it is worldwide. About 72.7 percent of all tablets sold in the country during the second quarter were Apple-flavored, while homegrown hero Lenovo was a distant second at 8.4 percent. Everyone else had to contend with less than four percent and reflected the more diverse Chinese technology sphere -- relative heavyweights like Acer, ASUS and Samsung had to hob-nob with brands that have little recognition elsewhere, such as Eben and Teclast.

The researchers credit Apple's lead, a 7.8-point gain, to a combination of the new iPad and a price-cut iPad 2. We'd add that Analysys' figures might not tell the whole story, though: China is well-known for its thriving shanzhai market, where legions of KIRFs and very small (usually Android-based) brands likely slip under an analyst group's radar. That said, it's still an illustration of how Apple's influence in tablets is a distinct reversal of its much smaller smartphone share, even in a nation that's a hotbed of Android activity.

Can we establish a KIRF award for Most Likely to Invite Multiple Lawsuits? If so, Long Xun Software would have to claim the statuette for its Droid X360, at least if it dared set foot in the US. This prime example of keepin' it real fake is even more of a PS Vita clone than the Yinlips YDPG18, but goes the extra mile with a name that's likely to irk Microsoft, Motorola, Verizon and George Lucas all at once. That's even discounting the preloaded emulators for just about every pre-1999 Nintendo, Sega and Sony console. Inside, you'll at least find a device that's reasonably up to snuff: the 5-inch handheld is running Android 4.0 on a 1.5GHz single-core Quanzhi A10 processor, 512MB of RAM, 8GB of built-in space, a 2-megapixel camera at the back and a VGA shooter at the front. If the almost gleeful amount of copyright and trademark violation isn't keeping you from wanting this award-winner, you'll have to ask Long Xun for pricing and availability.